Birth and childhood

Birth and childhood

One of the greatest joys and celebrations in the Balinese culture is the birth of a child. Prior to the birth, a pregnant woman is not permitted to enter a temple as she is seen to be 'unclean'. A father often lets his hair grow throughout the pregnancy. In the third to fourth month of pregnancy the soon-to-be parents will go through a cleansing ceremony. After the birth of the baby, the placenta is put in a coconut shell and buried near the entrance to the family's house.  This process is believed to attract spiritual guides for the child.

At twelve days, offerings are made to the baby as it is believed that after this length of time the soul is now firmly secured within the child's body. It is also at this time that the child is given its own individual name.

At 42 days old, the child goes through further purification in the form of a detailed ceremony, where the baby is welcomed into the family further and becomes a full member. After this ceremony the child's mother can return to daily religious and home activities.

Up until the 105th day, the child has not touched the ground and has been carried around since the day it was born. On this day the child is finally set down on the ground with further ceremony conducted where mother Earth (or Ibu Pertiwi) is asked to protect the child from harm. A child is not placed on the ground until it is old enough to walk, and a Balinese child is not allowed to crawl.

At 210 days (the equivalent of one Balinese year) the formal naming ceremony is conducted and the child will receive its formal name, which depends on its family's social status and its birth order.

KECAK DANCE

Kecak Dance

Kecak (pronounced [ˈketʃaʔ], alternate spellings: Ketjak and Ketjack) is a form of Balinese dance and music drama that was developed in the 1930s in Bali, Indonesia. Since its creation, it has been performed primarily by men, with the very first women's kecak group starting in 2006.

Also known as the Ramayana Monkey Chant, the piece, 

performed by a circle of at least 150performers wearing checked cloth around their waists, percussively chanting "cak" and moving their hands and arms, depicts a battle from the Ramayana. The monkey-like Vanara helped Prince Rama fight the evil King Ravana. Kecak has roots in sanghyang, a trance-inducing exorcism dance.

History

Kecak was originally a trance ritual accompanied by male chorus. In the 1930s, Walter Spies, a German painter and musician, became deeply interested in the ritual while living in Bali. He adapted it as a drama, based on the Hindu Ramayana and including dance, intended for performance before Western tourist audiences.

This is an example of what James Clifford describes as part of the "modern art-culture system, in which, "the West or the central power adopts, transforms, and consumes non-Western or peripheral cultural elements, while making 'art,' which was once embedded in the culture as a whole, into a separate entity. Spies worked with Wayan Limbak, who popularized the dance by arranging for performances by Balinese groups touring internationally. These tours have helped make the kecak internationally known.

Bali

Bali

Bali is an island and a province in Indonesia. The province includes the island of Bali and a few other islands. The island is known as an island of a thousand temples. There are about 3,100,000 people in Bali. Bali's most important city is Denpasar. Hinduism is Bali's largest religion. More than 90% of its people are Hindus. Textiles and garments are 45% of their exports. The currency in Bali is the Indonesian rupiah (IDR). Bali's food mainly consists of rice and mostly spicy foods. Tourists often enjoy a local specialty called babi guling (roast pig). Bali has many fruits, such as pineapples, mangos, passionfruits, bananas, coconuts, rambutans, selaks, durians, mangosteens and different kinds of oranges and grapefruits. Bali is also known for its folk music which is played on a group of instruments called a gamelan. The literacy rate for Bali is 45.55%.

Tourism
Rice fields (sawah)

Bali is a popular place for tourists. They have lots of historic temples. Bali is known for its great views and its beautiful beaches and volcanoes. Bali has cool days between April and October and hot days from November to March. Bali had a major terrorist bombing on October 12, 2002 killing more than 200 people. The attacks were at a local nightclub in the tourist town of Kuta.

Cremation ceremony

Bali is famous for its many lovely rice fields (sawah) and Hindu ceremonies. While half of the tourists never get farther than Kuta, the towns of Padang Bai and Amed are quite popular.

The island of Bali lies 3.2 km (2.0 mi) east of Java, and is approximately 8 degrees south of the equator. Bali and Java are separated by the Bali Strait. East to west, the island is approximately 153 km (95 mi) wide and spans approximately 112 km (70 mi) north to south; administratively it covers 5,780 km² (2,230 sq mi), or 5,577 km² (2,153 sq mi) without Nusa Penida District;^[36] its population density is roughly 750 people/km² (1,900 people/sq mi).

Bali's central mountains include several peaks over 2,000 metres (6,600 feet) in elevation and active volcanoes such as Mount Batur. The highest is Mount Agung (3,031 m, 9,944 ft), known as the "mother mountain", which is an active volcano rated as one of the world's most likely sites for a massive eruption within the next 100 years.^[37] In late 2017 Mount Agung started erupting and large numbers of people were evacuated, temporarily closing the island's airport.^[38] Mountains range from centre to the eastern side, with Mount Agung the easternmost peak. Bali's volcanic nature has contributed to its exceptional fertility and its tall mountain ranges provide the high rainfall that supports the highly productive agriculture sector. South of the mountains is a broad, steadily descending area where most of Bali's large rice crop is grown. The northern side of the mountains slopes more steeply to the sea and is the main coffee-producing area of the island, along with rice, vegetables and cattle. The longest river, Ayung River, flows approximately 75 km (47 mi) (see List of rivers of Bali).

The island is surrounded by coral reefs. Beaches in the south tend to have white sand while those in the north and west have black sand. Bali has no major waterways, although the Ho River is navigable by small sampan boats. Black sand beaches between Pasut and Klatingdukuh are being developed for tourism, but apart from the seaside temple of Tanah Lot, they are not yet used for significant tourism.

The largest city is the provincial capital, Denpasar, near the southern coast. Its population is around 491,500 (2002). Bali's second-largest city is the old colonial capital, Singaraja, which is located on the north coast and is home to around 100,000 people.^[39] Other important cities include the beach resort, Kuta, which is practically part of Denpasar's urban area, and Ubud, situated at the north of Denpasar, is the island's cultural centre.

Three small islands lie to the immediate south-east and all are administratively part of the Klungkung regency of Bali: Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan. These islands are separated from Bali by the Badung Strait.

To the east, the Lombok Strait separates Bali from Lombok and marks the biogeographical division between the fauna of the Indomalayan realm and the distinctly different fauna of Australasia. The transition is known as the Wallace Line, named after Alfred Russel Wallace, who first proposed a transition zone between these two major biomes. When sea levels dropped during the Pleistocene ice age, Bali was connected to Java and Sumatra and to the mainland of Asia and shared the Asian fauna, but the deep water of the Lombok Strait continued to keep Lombok Island and the Lesser Sunda archipelago isolated.

BALINESE MARRIAGE

Balinese Marriage

A Balinese marriage is another ceremonial occasion, as it is in almost all cultures in the world. Marriage varies from village to village. There are two ways to get married in Bali, one is called 'ngerorod' and the other is 'mapadik'.

An ngerorod marriage is one of elopement, yet more dramatically than Western elopements. In this marriage the bride is 'kidnapped' by the husband-to-be or his friends and family. She must then fake distress and pretend to fight her 'kidnappers' off. She will then be taken to a pre-arranged location where she is united with her husband-to-be.

Her father will raise the alarm of this theatrical 'kidnapping' and will organise a fake search

party. They will search, but without luck, and will return tired and exhausted. During this time, the husband and wife will be living as though they are married, making offerings to the gods.

Days later, the groom and father of the bride will discuss the union and settle on a payment for the daughter/bride. An official celebration will follow, which is merely a formality as they are already considered married in the eyes of the gods.

PENJOR

PENJOR

The penjor is a tall, curved bamboo pole decorated with coconut leaves with an offering at the base. This is one of the media used by Hindus in Bali as part of almost every important ceremony, especially for the anniversary temple celebrations.

The Sri Jaya Kasunu manuscript states that the penjor symbolizes the mountain and the mountain itself is the symbol of the universe. Therefore, for the Balinese the penjor is synonymous with Mount Agung, the highest and holiest mountain in Bali.

The aim of erecting penjors at Galungan is to show devotion to God in His manifestation as Hyang Giri Pati (the God of the mountain). Mountains with deep forests hold a lot of water, which flows into rivers. This then fulfils water needs for irrigation and drinking water.

During Galungan celebrations, each family erects a penjor outside their gate, which makes the whole neighborhood look splendid.

Material for a Penjor

The basic material of a penjor is a curved bamboo pole. The pole is then decorated with yellow coconut leaves, pala bungkah (roots - sweet potato or cassava), pala gantung (fruit - cucumbers, oranges, bananas), pala wija (cereal - rice, corn), plawa (leaves), traditional cakes, 11 Chinese coins, and a small shrine with some offerings.

All materials for a penjor constitute peoples' basic needs, signifying that we should take care of those things. In addition, livestock sacrificed for the ceremony are believed to become better creatures in their next life.

DEATH

Death

Just like birth, death is an important part in the ritual and ceremonial lives of the Balinese.  Death is the source of the most dramatic celebrations on the island. There are many parts to the death ceremony, starting with the lighting of an oil lamp outside the home of the deceased, indicating that there has been a death. The Balinese people have very strong beliefs concerning the soul. They believe that a soul cannot be fully freed if there is a body still around, which is why many are cremated.

The cremation ceremony, or the ngaben ritual, can be very costly and for many Balinese families this is an extra cost they cannot manage immediately after a death. In these cases, the body is buried until the time that the family has saved enough money for a cremation ceremony. 

If the cremation is going to take place quickly then a corpse will be mummified and left in the house until the ceremony. The mummification process involves cleansing the body then rubbing a mixture of sandalwood powder, salt, turmeric, rice flower and vinegar. The body is bound with the hands across the chest in a pray position. Metres of white cloth are used in the ritual.

The village priest is responsible for determining an appropriate date for the cremation. Once this date is known the family will begin the construction of a large tower, often made of paper and bamboo, and decorated according to the deceased's caste and financial status. Towers are sometimes shaped to represent a mythical creature or a god. The deceased is place within this tower on the day of the funeral procession.

The procession takes to the street and is a parade of people in colourful clothes carrying gifts and offerings, accompanied by musicians playing cheerful music. Many people help to carry the tower. The tower is spun and shaken to confuse the spirit and to stop it from returning to haunt the living.

Once at the cremation site, the celebratory actions stop and the body is transferred to a coffin, which is often in the shape of a bull or lion. The coffin is then set alight and the crowd will cheer and yell as they celebrate the departure of the spirit into the heavens. Once a person has died, attention turns to their spirit, as their body has no purpose any more.

Cremations are a time for celebration for the Balinese and not a time for tears or sadness. It is a time when the soul is freed from the body and the material aspects of life. The soul is thought to be one step closer to the divine state. Read also Tooth Feeling

GEBOGAN

GEBOGAN

You know those huge offerings of fruit that women carry to the temple in Bali – those are called gebogan (g’bogan). Basically, they are arrangements of fruit, colourful flowers, cooked chicken, small rice pyramids, grated coconut, roasted peanuts and sweet cakes stacked on top of one another, forming cylindrical towers. These objects are not always combined together, however, and you will often find gebogan made up of either just flowers or fruit, depending on the purpose. The offerings are attached to a banana tree trunk by sharp bamboo skewers. The base of a gebogan can be either a wooden dulang or a metal bokor which support the weight of the tower. Coconut-leaf decorations, known as sampian, ornament the top of the offerings.

Gebogan can be very tall and in some ceremonies reach up to more than one and a half metres. Balinese women carry gebogan to the temples on their heads which, due to their height and weight, is no mean feat. You will also see women carry gebogan in a procession called mepeed, when special sacred objects are carried to the temple to be blessed. Once they reach the temple, incense sticks are put in the gebogan and are blessed by the priests. Then everyone prays and the gebogan are offered to the gods.

Once all the rituals are over, the gebogan are taken home and the food is shared amongst family and friends. Since food spoils quickly in the tropics, it is either consumed straight away or given away to visitors. If you ever visit Balinese post-ceremony time, they will surely offer you fruit and cakes which come straight off a gebogan.

Traditionally, gebogan only served as offerings to God and were symbolic of all that is found in nature. These days, however, gebogan also function as decorations or ornaments for hotels, parties, special occasions, just like ornamental bamboo poles (penjor).